1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pipe cleaning robot, and more particularly, to a pipe cleaning robot, which is folded to easily enter a narrow-mouthed pipe at the initial stage, flexibly increases or decreases in size corresponding to various diameters of pipes, and adheres closely to the inner wall of the pipe to prevent a rollover due to impact and vibration generated during the cleaning process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, lines for transferring fluid, which include water and sewage pipes or cooling and heating ducts, are formed to have a necessary length by joining a plurality of pipes through welding or flange joint.
When the transfer lines are used for a long time, contaminants such as bead generated during the welding, dust, water scale, and oil scale that are introduced from the outside hinder the flow of fluid. Also, since the contamination of fluid flowing through the transfer lines increases and the purity of fluid is reduced, continuous maintenance is needed to remove the contaminants.
However, since most transfer lines have a narrow diameter or air therein is deficient to breathe but toxic gases remain, it is difficult to directly deploy a worker for the cleaning work. Thus, high-pressure fluid is allowed to sweep though the pipes, but it is difficult for this method to remove impurities tightly adhered to the inner wall of the pipe. Also, a reduction of the water pressure at a deep place inside the pipe makes it difficult to perform proper cleaning.
Thus, there is a need for a cleaning apparatus that can directly remove impurities on the inner wall while moving in the pipe. Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2011-0033389 discloses a pipe cleaning robot in which a support arm adhered with a brush is combined with a rotation part at the front side of a main body and cleans impurities from the inner wall while rotating.
However, since this cleaning robot includes the main body for the cleaning work and a plurality of leg parts for fixing its location in a pipe and moving, which are separately configured, and a driving unit and a controller for controlling the operation of a driving wheel and the extension and retraction of the leg part are individually needed, the structure becomes complicated, and it is not easy to miniaturize the cleaning robot. Accordingly, the cleaning robot is not proper for a transfer line including pipes with a narrow inlet or a small inner diameter.
Also, since most transfer lines include bent parts at which the direction of the transfer line is changed over about 90 degrees, the above-mentioned pipe cleaning robot without a separate direction switching unit is limited to the application to a straight line type of transfer lines due to its difficulty in changing the traveling direction.